The country that was

[cradleandshoot]

Things have changed since LaxPower days. I'm no longer a moderator & I don't have to moderate what I post. I can express my opinions.

Holy moly. Do you have any idea how much consternation you could have saved both of us if you had told me this?

How many times did you tell me "I haven't changed"? Instead of telling me that you couldn't post freely at Laxpower?

Do you not understand what this looks like from where I sit?


It looks like you have COMPLETELY changed from where I sit....and the switch from Laxpower to here coincided with Trump's arrival. It ain't some huge leap in logic to conclude that like millions of Americans, you succumbed to Right Wing Media and Trumpism.

Get it?

So I'm reacting to this change and saying to myself: "I know the Laxpower Old Salt is in there somewhere, we just need to bring him out".

Get it?

This TOTALLY changes my understanding of your posts. Now I get that this current Old Salt is your true self, and you're simply a hardcore faithful to Party first Republican who despises what you consider to be liberals with every fiber of your being.

I'm cool with that. We've had dozens of you here. I'll poke fun, but won't go searching for the Laxpower Old Salt anymore.

Man, I wish you had copped to your inability to post what you wanted on Laxpower about 5 years ago. Would've saved us a ton of arguments.

This will change how we interact completely.

I find much of your progressive, leftist agenda, to be coercive, impractical & doomed to fail.

First of all, you do this all the time: you ignore that I'm to the center of you. My agenda is centrist. Know how you can tell it's centrist? Every other 1st world nation on Earth has these bennies. Yep, it's to the left of you. But like so many partisans, you're convinced that either there is no center, or you ARE the center. You're not the center, OS. You're the right.

But that's fine. The problem you're missing is: you don't have a substitute for my "agenda". So guess what the working class is going to do as the 1%ers and Coastal Libs continue to take more and more of America's GDP? They're going to vote their people in, and change things the way that they want.

You don't want to hear this, and that's fine. But your inability to provide any solutions to help the Working Class and Flyover America is what's doomed to fail. And the thing you don't get is: I WANT you to give me a conservative solution. I WANT you and your party to govern, and provide YOUR solutions to these issues.

Because what you've done for the last 24 or so years is: "I give up, so we'll do nothing but shovel more money to the rich". Look at alllll the solutions to problems your Party came up with in Decades past that 2024 Republicans like you would consider to be Commie Plots: founding of the EPA. Mileage requirements for US auto fleet. Reagan's expansion of Medicare.

You've stopped governing, and you and your fellow R voters haven't noticed. Again, this is why the gap between rich and poor is exploding.

What's more? You're plenty smart enough to know this.

Your MASSIVE tax hikes will kill the economy.

That's right. That's why your party keeps cutting them. You think it's smarter to pay more on the interest on debt than we spend educating our Children and Working Class. Why this makes sense to you is beyond my understanding, but, you do you......

I'd love to be able to cut defense spending, re-balance our global force posture & leverage our allies to do more in our shared defense.
Under Biden, our adversaries sense weakness & are fomenting conflict in more regions than we can effectively counter.
We're having to spend more on defense, just to arm our allies while depleting our own strategic reserves.

That's right. Neo-Con theory is REALLY expensive. We have to install guys like Bernie who will abandon this game BEFORE we cut military spending. We agree.

I can see the real possibility of strategic failures in Europe, the mideast & the western Pacific....& that's not scare mongering.
As much as we might like, we can't withdraw from our leadership position. We have to lead from a position of strength, not weakness.

Disagree. China is in free fall for the same reason Japan's economy has been a mess for DECADES: too many old people, not enough workers. A lack of immigration has severe economic consequences. Why do you think the US economy is still growing, while others are struggling? Immigrants.

The Dems open border scheme is a sham that subverts our immigration laws & makes a mockery of our asylum process. Obama & Trump tried to enforce our immigration laws. Biden is using every device in his power to subvert them. It has resulted in chaos, with no control over who is entering our country & running free.

We've had over 10 million illegal immigrants in America "with no control over who is entering our country & running free" long before Biden showed up.

We disagree here: you want to focus on the leaky tub faucet: I want to focus on the tub that's been spilling water on the bathroom floor for decades.

We're not exploiting our resources, while the Dems mandate unproven & impractical green schemes that the public will not accept & are doomed to failure. Biden drained the SPR just to reduce pump prices a few cents/gallon before the midterm election, despite the prospect of war in the ME.
His endless student loan schemes are blatant vote buying & clearly unconstitutional.

Good faith attempts at bipartisanship like what Speaker Johnson just pulled off are claimed as Biden's accomplishments.
If the IC convinced Johnson why we need to continue funding an open ended proxy war in Ukraine, when is Biden going to share that with the US public & lay out a coherent strategy, if he has one ?

This is all swell, and fair criticism. I just wish you'd hold YOUR Presidents to the same level of scrutiny that you hold the D's.

You don't. And you never will, just like millions of your fellow Republicans. And that's fine.

What level of scrutiny do you speak of? There are some pretty hinky accusations against Biden. Was he getting kickbacks from Ukraine and China via that very circuitous money trail? DFJ says he wasn't given a dime. Well at least a not dime that no money trail will ever lead back to him. Dumb F**k Hunter was paid sweet money for being a dumb f**k like a chip off the boss of his old man. So a Fan, would you pay Hunter 230 thousand a month to tell you the secret to distilling spirits? What effing reason besides being the VPs son did he have any qualifications to sit on the board at Burisma ? Not even a trick question, Hunter was totally unqualified for the position. Good thing that Hunter didn't actually have to do anything for all of that bling. As long as the big guy is

[a fan]

What level of scrutiny do you speak of? There are some pretty hinky accusations against Biden. Was he getting kickbacks from Ukraine and China via that very circuitous money trail? DFJ says he wasn't given a dime. Well at least a not dime that no money trail will ever lead back to him.

A DoJ, IRS, and FBi that was run by Trump's hand picked choices said that there was 'no there there' when it came to Joe Biden.

That's good enough for me.

Dumb F**k Hunter was paid sweet money for being a dumb f**k like a chip off the boss of his old man. So a Fan, would you pay Hunter 230 thousand a month to tell you the secret to distilling spirits? What effing reason besides being the VPs son did he have any qualifications to sit on the board at Burisma ? Not even a trick question, Hunter was totally unqualified for the position. Good thing that Hunter didn't actually have to do anything for all of that bling. As long as the big guy is

Asked and answered: because Hunter was playing Burisma for fools, and cashing in on their ignorance.

And as I've said before: if I'm Joe Biden? I'd first call my son, and tell him to resign in 24 hours.

And if Hunter didn't? I'd have threatened Burisma if they didn't fire Hunter immediately.

It's UNETHICAL to take that job in Ukraine,

And as I've said many times: I'm OVERJOYED they IRS, FBI , and DoJ were up Hunter's rear end with a flashlight, and checking for kickbacks to Joe.

My ONLY quibble is a 6 year (and counting) investigation into a boilerplate tax case is overboard.

That said? If I have to choose between over-investigating, and under-investigating? I'd choose over-investigating every time.

[cradleandshoot]

What level of scrutiny do you speak of? There are some pretty hinky accusations against Biden. Was he getting kickbacks from Ukraine and China via that very circuitous money trail? DFJ says he wasn't given a dime. Well at least a not dime that no money trail will ever lead back to him.

A DoJ, IRS, and FBi that was run by Trump's hand picked choices said that there was 'no there there' when it came to Joe Biden.

That's good enough for me.

Dumb F**k Hunter was paid sweet money for being a dumb f**k like a chip off the boss of his old man. So a Fan, would you pay Hunter 230 thousand a month to tell you the secret to distilling spirits? What effing reason besides being the VPs son did he have any qualifications to sit on the board at Burisma ? Not even a trick question, Hunter was totally unqualified for the position. Good thing that Hunter didn't actually have to do anything for all of that bling. As long as the big guy is

Asked and answered: because Hunter was playing Burisma for fools, and cashing in on their ignorance.

And as I've said before: if I'm Joe Biden? I'd first call my son, and tell him to resign in 24 hours.

And if Hunter didn't? I'd have threatened Burisma if they didn't fire Hunter immediately.

It's UNETHICAL to take that job in Ukraine,

And as I've said many times: I'm OVERJOYED they IRS, FBI , and DoJ were up Hunter's rear end with a flashlight, and checking for kickbacks to Joe.

My ONLY quibble is a 6 year (and counting) investigation into a boilerplate tax case is overboard.

That said? If I have to choose between over-investigating, and under-investigating? I'd choose over-investigating every time.

Doesn't it become complicated when the possibility exists that a sitting president may have been in cahoots with his own son? I betcha if trump happens to win in November that deep dive into this business venture will be soon to follow. FTR that would happen because as you and I both know...payback is a beeotch.

[a fan]

Doesn't it become complicated when the possibility exists that a sitting president may have been in cahoots with his own son? I betcha if trump happens to win in November that deep dive into this business venture will be soon to follow.

They already did that, Cradle. Giuliani got involved, too, if you'll recall.

They TRIED to find something, Cradle. There's nothing there.

Trump wont' try again if he's elected. Why would Trump bother trying to pressure the Doj to unfairly go after a Joe/Hunter connection?

If Trump wins? BIden's gone, and a nothing burger, and not worth Trump's time.

[Seacoaster(1)]

"They TRIED to find something, Cradle. There's nothing there."

It doesn't matter how many times you say it. He just has to stay on the theme taught to him over the last three or four years. Like a baby blanket.

[cradleandshoot]

"They TRIED to find something, Cradle. There's nothing there."

It doesn't matter how many times you say it. He just has to stay on the theme taught to him over the last three or four years. Like a baby blanket.

Your not getting it counselor, I know there was an investigation. I'm talking about the deep dive a trump DoJ will take into the issue. Unless you think trump will let it just slide. One thing I know for certain irregardless of party affiliation if your in power and you want to prosecute an individual you'll find something or someone to indict. Even if it's the proverbial ham sammich.

[Seacoaster(1)]

"They TRIED to find something, Cradle. There's nothing there."

It doesn't matter how many times you say it. He just has to stay on the theme taught to him over the last three or four years. Like a baby blanket.

Your not getting it counselor, I know there was an investigation. I'm talking about the deep dive a trump DoJ will take into the issue. Unless you think trump will let it just slide. One thing I know for certain irregardless of party affiliation if your in power and you want to prosecute an individual you'll find something or someone to indict. Even if it's the proverbial ham sammich.

A fan already responded. Trump already did it, when it mattered, with Giuliani doing a drunken romp across eastern Europe and the former Sviet Union to concoct (not dig up) dirt on the Bidens. "Irregardless" is not a word. Your and you're are different words. I like ham and swiss, i a grilled cheese format. Glad we had this talk!!

[old salt]

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/v ... erm=second

WOKE CULTURE
Victim-LARPing and other Progressive Fads

by KAYLA BARTSCH, May 2, 2024

It is an injustice to the English language to describe the chaos lawn games on college campuses as “protests.”

For the few voices crying, “These kids might be dumb, but doesn’t anyone believe in freedom of speech anymore?!” — there is a stark contrast between a student rally and a days-long encampment that’s so disruptive it shuts down in-person classes, results in violent riots, and blocks Jewish students from accessing university buildings. The criteria of time, place, and manner remain.

I digress — despite the unfit means, the pro-terrorism “protests” on campus aren’t proper protests at all with regard to their content.

The students camping out on quads long to be part of an elite “activist class.” With this denomination come status, job opportunities, and funding — some are already paid for their activist efforts.

Unlike those who, say, marched for racial equality in America in the 1960s, the career and social standing of many of these students will only benefit by their participation in the jihadist charade.

In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. famously penned: “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

The “laws” (i.e., regulations) instituted by universities regarding the use of shared spaces are certainly just. While these students might imagine that they are protesting the “Zionist regime,” they are effectively protesting the just laws of their own universities.

By dint of their own actions — i.e., being a nuisance on campuses across the country — these students are challenging reasonable university policies and the existence of their universities’ endowments. (Keep in mind, these are the same students who yell that college should be free.)

These students will almost certainly graduate with inflated grades, go on to become DEI administrators or “grassroots organizers” or mainstream journalists, and do just fine for themselves within the protest–industrial complex. What they’re doing on campus currently is just an audition to lead a life of self-righteous, Soros-funded, megaphone-wielding “work.”

A real protest assumes real stakes — something that none of the “I need humanitarian-aid and a vegan bowl delivered or I will literally starve” students understand.

So, what does a real protest actually look like?

While students at Columbia are dancing for “decolonization,” women in Tehran are dancing for civilization.

In the spring of 2023, a troupe of Iranian women danced to a Selena Gomez song — with their hair down — in a public space. They were all promptly arrested. In Iran, women who partake in “synchronized movements” are criminals. Their official crime? Committing acts of “social defiance” and “norm-breaking.” (Besides dancing, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are also banned in Iran.)

Since the fall of 2022, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being released from the custody of the Iranian police for an alleged head-scarf violation, several thousand people have been arrested for protesting the regime. At least nine of those protesters have been executed after sham trials.

I’m sure the keffiyeh-clad students imagine themselves in solidarity with the courageous women and men of Tehran who have — truly — risked their lives for freedom and equality. However, these students are actively aligned with the very regime that threatens the life and liberty of these Iranian women. (The supreme leader of Iran himself has voiced his great admiration of the pro-Hamas student movements in the U.S.)

All of the anti-Israel students on American campuses are cosplaying the suffering of a population that largely lives in extreme poverty (save, of course, their “wellness tents,” vapes, and boxed lunches). Their project is analogous to a wealthy person purchasing a pair of ripped jeans for $299 to feel like a member of the American working class.

Ultimately, these campus “protests” have been a fashion statement to help self-hating rich kids feel better about themselves.

[OCanada]

Trash. Only in America could 35,000 dead and almost a century of living under a state with no justice system working for the lesser caste/class become a domestic self-centered political flight dismissing significant contributions from outside provocateurs, incompetent administrations, politicians trying to win elections, stereotyping etc

[youthathletics]

Trash. Only in America could 35,000 dead and almost a century of living under a state with no justice system working for the lesser caste/class become a domestic self-centered political flight dismissing significant contributions from outside provocateurs, incompetent administrations, politicians trying to win elections, stereotyping etc

How many Jews and Christians have been killed in the name of jihad in the last 25 years...although, we wont' hear that term here in the states, b/c it will reveal the true goal. Hmm...only 35k-50k (such a small number) Christians killed in the name of boko haram. Think it aint working its way over here....drip by drip?

[OCanada]

I think tou are a troll who pays little attention to history and mouth ls right wing talking points. Little merit fo almost anything you say. Stolen Valor

[youthathletics]

I think tou are a troll who pays little attention to history and mouth ls right wing talking points. Little merit fo almost anything you say. Stolen Valor

Spoken like a good man, backed in to corner.

[jhu72]

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/v ... erm=second

WOKE CULTURE
Victim-LARPing and other Progressive Fads

by KAYLA BARTSCH, May 2, 2024

It is an injustice to the English language to describe the chaos lawn games on college campuses as “protests.”

For the few voices crying, “These kids might be dumb, but doesn’t anyone believe in freedom of speech anymore?!” — there is a stark contrast between a student rally and a days-long encampment that’s so disruptive it shuts down in-person classes, results in violent riots, and blocks Jewish students from accessing university buildings. The criteria of time, place, and manner remain.

I digress — despite the unfit means, the pro-terrorism “protests” on campus aren’t proper protests at all with regard to their content.

The students camping out on quads long to be part of an elite “activist class.” With this denomination come status, job opportunities, and funding — some are already paid for their activist efforts.

Unlike those who, say, marched for racial equality in America in the 1960s, the career and social standing of many of these students will only benefit by their participation in the jihadist charade.

In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. famously penned: “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

The “laws” (i.e., regulations) instituted by universities regarding the use of shared spaces are certainly just. While these students might imagine that they are protesting the “Zionist regime,” they are effectively protesting the just laws of their own universities.

By dint of their own actions — i.e., being a nuisance on campuses across the country — these students are challenging reasonable university policies and the existence of their universities’ endowments. (Keep in mind, these are the same students who yell that college should be free.)

These students will almost certainly graduate with inflated grades, go on to become DEI administrators or “grassroots organizers” or mainstream journalists, and do just fine for themselves within the protest–industrial complex. What they’re doing on campus currently is just an audition to lead a life of self-righteous, Soros-funded, megaphone-wielding “work.”

A real protest assumes real stakes — something that none of the “I need humanitarian-aid and a vegan bowl delivered or I will literally starve” students understand.

So, what does a real protest actually look like?

While students at Columbia are dancing for “decolonization,” women in Tehran are dancing for civilization.

In the spring of 2023, a troupe of Iranian women danced to a Selena Gomez song — with their hair down — in a public space. They were all promptly arrested. In Iran, women who partake in “synchronized movements” are criminals. Their official crime? Committing acts of “social defiance” and “norm-breaking.” (Besides dancing, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are also banned in Iran.)

Since the fall of 2022, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being released from the custody of the Iranian police for an alleged head-scarf violation, several thousand people have been arrested for protesting the regime. At least nine of those protesters have been executed after sham trials.

I’m sure the keffiyeh-clad students imagine themselves in solidarity with the courageous women and men of Tehran who have — truly — risked their lives for freedom and equality. However, these students are actively aligned with the very regime that threatens the life and liberty of these Iranian women. (The supreme leader of Iran himself has voiced his great admiration of the pro-Hamas student movements in the U.S.)

All of the anti-Israel students on American campuses are cosplaying the suffering of a population that largely lives in extreme poverty (save, of course, their “wellness tents,” vapes, and boxed lunches). Their project is analogous to a wealthy person purchasing a pair of ripped jeans for $299 to feel like a member of the American working class.

Ultimately, these campus “protests” have been a fashion statement to help self-hating rich kids feel better about themselves.

... what bullsh*t! Totally expected from that fascist rag.

[jhu72]

Meghan has a point....and seemingly, many, even around here, are cool with this: We provide so many liberties, that its come to a point where we tolerate damned near anything.

https://x.com/MeghanMcCain/status/1786084597748384254

... like women managing their own healthcare without the obstruction of know nothing holy rollers and impotent old republiCON men.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Meghan has a point....and seemingly, many, even around here, are cool with this: We provide so many liberties, that its come to a point where we tolerate damned near anything.

https://x.com/MeghanMcCain/status/1786084597748384254

... like women managing their own healthcare without the obstruction of know nothing holy rollers and impotent old republiCON men.

Like men threatening women, with the force of archaic laws behind them?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investig ... tigations/

"As soon as Collin Davis found out his ex-partner was planning to travel to Colorado to have an abortion in late February, the Texas man retained a high-powered antiabortion attorney — who court records show immediately issued a legal threat.

If the woman proceeded with the abortion, even in a state where the procedure remains legal, Davis would seek a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the abortion and “pursue wrongful-death claims against anyone involved in the killing of his unborn child,” the lawyer wrote in a letter, according to records.

Now, Davis has disclosed his former partner’s abortion to a state district court in Texas, asking for the power to investigate what his lawyer characterizes as potentially illegal activity in a state where almost all abortions are banned.

The previously unreported petition was submitted under an unusual legal mechanism often used in Texas to investigate suspected illegal actions before a lawsuit is filed. The petition claims Davis could sue either under the state’s wrongful-death statute or the novel Texas law known as Senate Bill 8 that allows private citizens to file suit against anyone who “aids or abets” an illegal abortion.

The decision to target an abortion that occurred outside of Texas represents a potential new strategy by antiabortion activists to achieve a goal many in the movement have been working toward since Roe v. Wade was overturned: stopping women from traveling out of state to end their pregnancies. Crossing state lines for abortion care remains legal nationwide.

The case also illustrates the role that men who disapprove of their partners’ decisions could play in surfacing future cases that may violate abortion bans — either by filing their own civil lawsuits or by reporting the abortions to law enforcement.

Under Texas law, performing an abortion is a crime punishable by up to life in prison and up to $100,000 in civil penalties. Women seeking abortions cannot be charged under the state’s abortion restrictions, but the laws target anyone who performs or helps to facilitate an illegal abortion, including those who help distribute abortion pills.

Davis’s petition — filed under Texas’s Rule 202 by Jonathan Mitchell, a prominent antiabortion attorney known for devising new and aggressive legal strategies to crack down on abortion — follows a lawsuit filed last spring by another Texas man, Marcus Silva, who is attempting to sue three women who allegedly helped his ex-wife obtain abortion pills.

“Mr. Davis is considering whether to sue individuals and organizations that participated in the murder of his unborn child,” Mitchell, widely known as the architect of Senate Bill 8, wrote in Davis’s complaint in March.

Davis’s petition includes no evidence of illegal activity. Davis’s former partner ultimately obtained her abortion in Colorado, Davis claims in the court documents. Mitchell suggests in the petition that people who helped her procure the abortion could be found liable.

Antiabortion advocates have tried various tactics to dissuade women from traveling out of state for abortions. Idaho has passed a law making it illegal for someone to help a minor leave the state for an abortion without parental consent — which is currently blocked by the courts — and Tennessee is pursuing similar restrictions. Several Texas cities and counties have passed local ordinances attempting to stop women seeking abortions from using key portions of high-traffic highways.

Mitchell said in a statement that abortions that occur outside Texas can be targets for civil litigation.

“Fathers of aborted fetuses can sue for wrongful death in states with abortion bans, even if the abortion occurs out-of-state,” he wrote. “They can sue anyone who paid for the abortion, anyone who aided or abetted the travel, and anyone involved in the manufacture or distribution of abortion drugs.”

Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, described Mitchell’s statement and general approach as misleading “fearmongering.”

“People need to understand that it is not a crime to leave Texas or any other state in the country for an abortion,” said Duane, who is working with lawyers from the firm Arnold & Porter to represent the woman and others targeted in the Davis case. “I don’t want people to be intimidated, but they should be outraged and alarmed.”

Duane described the woman’s relationship with Davis as “toxic and harmful.”

Davis — who claims in the petition to have helped conceive what he calls his “unborn child” — did not respond to requests for comment. Mitchell declined to comment on Duane’s description of the relationship.

Abortion rights advocates say these types of legal actions amount to “vigilante justice” designed to intimidate people who have done nothing wrong. Duane and other lawyers representing the woman asked the court to redact the names of those involved from the public court filings, out of a concern for their privacy and safety.

The judge agreed to seal the original petition with the identifying information.

“The document at issue contains confidential and sensitive information including the Respondents’ full names ... and sensitive allegations about health care that the Respondents have a substantial interest in keeping confidential,” the judge wrote in an order signed Wednesday.

Over the past two years, many antiabortion activists have grown frustrated by what they see as a lack of enforcement of abortion bans — particularly as abortion pills become more widely available in antiabortion states because of growing online and community-based pill networks.

Some antiabortion advocates are searching for a way to crack down.

“You have laws being ignored systematically — so what are we going to do about it?” said John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest antiabortion group. The pill networks, he added, “can and should be prosecuted.”

Several district attorneys in conservative areas told The Washington Post that abortion laws are difficult to enforce in practice, largely because they have no clear way to find out about these cases.

“First you would have to have some sort of complaining party … then law enforcement would have to do a full investigation,” said Kent Volkmer, county attorney for Pinal County in Arizona, where the Republican-led legislature has voted to repeal an 1864 abortion law. “I think it’s extremely unlikely that an abortion-related criminal charge would ever be submitted to our office.”

If one of these cases did surface, Volkmer said, it would probably be reported by an employee of a doctor’s office who was aware of the abortion — or by the “purported father.”

Volkmer added that, because of his office’s policy to only prosecute cases with a reasonable likelihood of conviction, he would only anticipate prosecuting what he characterized as an “extreme” situation, such as an abortion that occurred late in the third trimester.

In the Davis case, Mitchell is attempting to depose the woman who had the abortion, along with several other people he writes may be “complicit” in the abortion. If deposed, they would be asked about others involved in the abortion, including any abortion funds or any other entities that provided financial support, according to court records. They would also have to provide all documentation relevant to the abortion.

“Mr. Davis expects to be able to better evaluate the prospects for legal success after deposing [the people listed], and discovering the identity of their co-conspirators and accomplices,” Mitchell wrote in the complaint, which he filed on March 22.

Davis is awaiting a decision from the state district court.

While the vast majority of Texas abortion funds stopped providing funding for out-of-state abortions after Roe was overturned — concerned for their legal risk amid vague laws they worried might allow prosecutors to target them — many resumed operations in the spring of 2023, reassured by a court ruling that has temporarily blocked some prosecutors from going after people who help Texans obtain abortions across state lines.

“I want people to know we don’t think there’s anything illegal about helping someone leave the state for an abortion,” said Duane, with the Center for Reproductive Rights. “These are Jonathan Mitchell … tactics to discourage people.”"

[jhu72]

... yup. No fascist republiCON scumbags in the TX legislature or sitting on courts in Texas or Washington DC.

[cradleandshoot]

... yup. No fascist republiCON scumbags in the TX legislature or sitting on courts in Texas or Washington DC.

And I'll raise you the plethora of Communist DemocRAT scumbags that compromise the NYS legislature. We can even throw in those special folks who make up the NYS judicial branch. Texas can't hold a candle to the NYS band of not so merry misfits.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Why do Americans still act like Trump is not a threat to the republican foundations of government? Why do people like YA purposely or unwittingly shill for Trump? We could see it all gone in a few, difficult years. Could it be that Trump's promises sound good to them? This is from Tom Nichols -- another former Republican aghast at what the GOP has become -- in The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters ... aign=share

"The Day After

While I was away from the Daily this past month, a lot of news and life happened, including the passage of a major foreign-aid bill, campus protests, and House Democrats offering to save the job of a GOP speaker. But Donald Trump also gave an interview to Time magazine that, after the usual burst of shock and commentary, has flown under the radar, relatively speaking, pushed out of the headlines by the unrest at elite colleges.

In the interview, Trump once again promised to pardon the January 6 insurrectionists; once again, he vowed to use the Justice Department as his personal legal hit squad. He said he will prosecute Joe Biden, deport millions of people, and allow states with newly strict abortion regulations to monitor pregnant women. He will kneecap NATO and throw Ukraine to the Russians.

Trump told Time that he thinks people actually like it when he sounds like a dictator, and he’s not entirely wrong: As I’ve noted, much of his base loves talk of “vermin” and the idea of exacting revenge on other Americans. But there are two other important reasons that many people are not taking Trump seriously enough—and that Biden, a long-serving American politician, is struggling in the polls with an often incoherent would-be autocrat.

One problem has been around as long as the republic: Americans don’t pay attention to politics, and when they do, they frequently blame the current president for whatever is going wrong in their lives. For most people, economic cause and effect is mostly notional; if gas prices are high today, or if someone is still not working despite low unemployment rates, it’s because of the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Combine this with the peculiar amnesia that helps people forget how many Americans needlessly died of COVID while Trump talked about injecting bleach, and you have a population that fondly remembers how good they had it during a terrifying pandemic.

Nostalgia and presentism are part of politics. But a second problem is even more worrisome: Americans simply cannot imagine how badly Trump’s first term might have turned out, and how ghastly his second term is likely to be. Our minds are not equipped to embrace how fast democracy could disintegrate. We can better imagine alien invasions than we can an authoritarian America. The Atlantic tried to lay out what this future would look like, but perhaps even words can’t capture the magnitude of the threat.

When I was in high school and taking driver’s education, our teachers would show us horrible films, with names like Death on the Highway, that included gory footage of actual car wrecks. The goal was to scare us into being responsible drivers by showing us the reality of being mangled or burned to death in a crash. The idea made sense: Most people have never seen a car wreck, and expanding our imaginations by showing us the actual carnage did, I suspect, scare some of us into holding that steering wheel at the steady 10-and-2 position.

Likewise, Americans had a hard time conceiving of a nuclear war until 1983, when ABC showed the made-for-television movie The Day After. The movie (as I wrote here) made an impact not because anyone thought a nuclear exchange would be a walk in the park but because no one could really get their head around what would happen if one took place. (That’s despite how thoroughly fears of nuclear war had otherwise permeated the culture.) The movie includes a stomach-churning scene of people watching a football game at a stadium, looking up to see the contrails of American missiles in the sky, and realizing that the world as they’ve known it would last for another 30 minutes at most. This was not Dr. Strangelove; it was a moment people could see happening to themselves.

We just don’t have a similar conceptualization for the end of democracy in America. I have not seen the film Civil War, but I’m not worried about another civil war—at least not the kind we had before. Rather, I’m worried about the gray fog of authoritarianism settling, in patches and pieces, across the United States. In 2021, my colleague George Packer tried to present a realistic scenario of democratic collapse; the next year, I wrote about what such a process might look like. But looking back, I see the limits of my imagination.

I did not, for example, think it possible that state troopers would stop women who might try to leave their state to seek an abortion. In his concurrence with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that threw out Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that such travel bans on pregnant women might be unconstitutional, and no state has tried to enact one—yet. But I now view this as only one of many inhuman outrages that could come to pass if the federal government is overtaken by Trump and his authoritarian cronies and the state courts feel free, with Trump’s blessing, to ignore the Constitution. I can imagine state legislatures passing repressive laws and expelling any representatives who oppose them. And I can easily see the former president and right-wing governors attempting to use the U.S. military and the National Guard as their personal muscle.

People have a hard time imagining all of this is in part because Trump has a compliant, right-wing media ecosystem arrayed around him that tries to explain away his behavior. But it doesn’t help that others in the national media remain locked in the mindset that this is a normal election. Today, The New York Times ran an op-ed from Matthew Schmitz, a right-wing writer who assured readers that all will be well: “Mr. Trump may pose a threat to our political system as it now exists,” he writes, “but it is a threat animated by a democratic spirit.” (Back in December, the Times ran an essay by Schmitz in which he argued that Trump is a moderate: “Mr. Trump’s moderation can be easy to miss, because he is not a stylistic centrist—the sort who calls for bipartisan budget cutting and a return to civility.” Well, that’s one way to put it.)

Crucial to deadening our imaginations about Trump is the idea pushed by some of his supporters that his unhinged statements are just a lot of tough talk, and that the second term would be like the first, only without the pandemic and with cheaper eggs. In reality, of course, Trump’s first term was (to use a rather vivid Russian expression I learned in my days in the Soviet Union) about as organized as a whorehouse on fire during an earthquake. Even before COVID, responsible men and women, some of whom agreed deeply with Trump on many issues, nonetheless had to run around stamping out one crisis after another. None of those people will be present to restrain Trump this time, and he will bring to Washington a crew that is even more morally reprehensible—and far more organized—than those who joined him in his first term.

Trump’s most alarmist opponents are wrong to insist that he would march into Washington in January 2025 like Hitler entering Paris. The process will be slower and more bureaucratic, starting with the seizure of the Justice Department and the Defense Department, two keys to controlling the nation. If Trump returns to office, he will not shoot democracy on Fifth Avenue. He and the people around him will paralyze it, limb by limb. The American public needs to get better at imagining what that would look like."

[OCanada]

... yup. No fascist republiCON scumbags in the TX legislature or sitting on courts in Texas or Washington DC.

And I'll raise you the plethora of Communist DemocRAT scumbags that compromise the NYS legislature. We can even throw in those special folks who make up the NYS judicial branch. Texas can't hold a candle to the NYS band of not so merry misfits.

Lololol more meaningless rhetoric with no substance

[cradleandshoot]

... yup. No fascist republiCON scumbags in the TX legislature or sitting on courts in Texas or Washington DC.

And I'll raise you the plethora of Communist DemocRAT scumbags that compromise the NYS legislature. We can even throw in those special folks who make up the NYS judicial branch. Texas can't hold a candle to the NYS band of not so merry misfits.

Lololol more meaningless rhetoric with no substance

Says Mr meaningless rhetoric. I still prefer my rhetoric to your pathetic useless drivel. Maybe someday you can be specific in your criticism of my perspectives instead of making vague references as to what you mean by no substance.